MATERIAL for the
early history of Glasgow was not very accessible when the eighteenth
century historians, M'Ure, Gibson, Denholm, and Brown, compiled
their works, and this mainly accounts for the extremely limited
extent to which original sources of information are used by these
authors. Towards such excusable neglect the present generation might
be indifferent if it were certain that everything of local
historical value, then in existence, were still available, and this
may safely be assumed with regard to the bulk of the manuscripts,
but there are grounds for believing that some have disappeared in
the interval.

All the muniments
which Archbishop Beaton took with him when he left the country at
the time of the Reformation were retained in Paris till near the end
of the eighteenth century, but by good fortune they had come under
the notice of Thomas Innes, an eminent elucidator of ancient
Scottish annals. Innes was a Roman Catholic priest and was latterly
vice-principal of the Scots College, where most of the Glasgow
manuscripts were deposited. These documents, as well as those
deposited in the Chartreuse of Paris, he had carefully examined in
the course of his historical inquiries, and he had been specially
gratified with the proof they afforded of the legitimacy of the
Stewart line of kings. Public attention having been directed to the
results of these investigations, Father Innes was often applied to
for information procurable from the Glasgow manuscripts. The
University of Glasgow asked him to supply extracts of the writings
relating to that institution, and a similar request came from the
magistrates and council of Glasgow with reference to the documents
specially relating to the city.

In consequence of the
communications thus opened, and the correspondence which followed, a
number of authenticated transcripts were transmitted to the
University in 1738, and later on a complete copy of the Episcopal
Register was supplied. In 1739 the magistrates and council were
presented with transcripts of the early city charters and other
writs in which the municipality were more immediately concerned.
Till the original documents were returned to this country, at a
later date, it is probable that investigators of the early
ecclesiastical and municipal history of Glasgow obtained most of
their information from these transcripts supplied by Father Innes.

John M'Ure, Glasgow's
first historian, was keeper of the Register of Sasines for the
Regality of Glasgow-and adjoining district, from which register
deeds relating to the burgh were excluded, and thus he had no
special knowledge of the city so far as could be learned from its
registers. But M'Ure claimed that his nativity in the city, great
age, long experience and employment, had given him more than
ordinary occasion to know the state of the town, while at " no small
difficulty and expense " he had procured from Paris copies of such
documents as he judged essentially necessary to illustrate his work.
M'Ure's history was published two years before the University
procured its first transcripts, and therefore he had to depend on
what was obtainable from Paris direct. Father Innes, whom he styles
"the learned and ingenious Mr. Thomas Innes," supplied a copy of the
foundation charter of 1175-8, where it is provided that the city was
to have all the privileges of a royal burgh; and in the history it
is bluntly

stated that Glasgow
was created a royal burgh by William the Lion. Technically this was
wrong, because in strict language a royal burgh must be held direct
of the sovereign, while in the case of Glasgow the bishop
intervened. But in a wider sense the statement was substantially
correct. Some of the more recent historians who criticised M'Ure's
verbal inaccuracy went to the opposite extreme, and, reasoning from
the name while overlooking the substance, represented Glasgow as an
ordinary burgh of barony, with its citizens dependent on the
pleasure of the bishop as their overlord. In actual experience, and
by virtue of its earliest charters, Glasgow had trading rights, home
and foreign, as full as any enjoyed by a royal burgh. It held its
own courts, admitted its burgesses, and conducted its municipal
administration, all in accordance with the ordinary procedure of a
royal burgh. Only in the election of the magistracy was there a
peculiarity. The bishop chose the bailies, but this could only be
done from a leet presented by the burgesses or the town council, so
that the election in the first instance came from the citizens. With
regard to the provost, an official who at a comparatively late
period was added to the town council of Glasgow, the bishop had a
freer hand, as the original nomination was left to himself. But even
after the bishop's selection of the bailies and nomination of the
provost, the commissions both to provosts and bailies were issued by
the town council.

John Gibson, who
published his History of Glasgow in 1777, makes more abundant use of
transcripts obtained from Paris than M'Ure did, and he also broke
new ground by giving a few extracts from the city's own records.
Here attention is arrested by quotations from a council record prior
in date to the earliest of the records now preserved in the city's
archives. Embracing the period immediately preceding and succeeding
the national change from the old to the new faith, the missing
volume must have contained much of vital importance in telling the
story of such a city as Glasgow, whose civic and ecclesiastical
affairs were so closely intermingled. Gibson's meagre extracts,
which may after all have been taken, not from the original record,
but from transcripts, do not conclusively prove that the volume was
really in existence in his day, and therefore the discredit of its
loss must not without further proof attach to the record custodiers
subsequent to that time.

Glasgow's episcopal
registers and writs, so full of information about localities
throughout the diocese, were largely used by George Chalmers in his
Caledonia, published in 1807-24. By this time the original documents
had passed through serious risk of destruction during the French
Revolution. Part of the writs had been brought to this country by
the Abbe Macpherson, rector of the Scots College at Rome, and
Chalmers himself, who was always on the outlook for manuscripts of
historical value, obtained the custody of some of these. Other writs
and registers came into the hands of Bishop Cameron of Edinburgh,
but suspicions are entertained that several bundles traced to St.
Omers, in France, were never returned to this country.

In 1832 the Maitland
Club, by the issue of a volume of selections from town council and
burgh court records (1373-80) took the first effective step for
having the local manuscript collections made readily accessible for
historical purposes; and, through newspaper enterprise, this
publication was shortly afterwards followed by a supplementary
series of extracts (1588-1750), now known in their republished form
as Memorabilia. Then came, in 1843, the Maitland Club's issue of
Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis, a most important work, containing
a print of the ancient register and of all charters relating to the
bishopric and the cathedral from the earliest times till the middle
of the sixteenth century. In 1846 the Club issued to its members
Liber Collegii Vostre Domine and Munimenta Fratrum Predicatorum de
Glasgu, being collections of documents relating to (i) the
Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Anne (1516-49), and (2) the
Place of the Friars Preachers in Glasgow (1249-1559); with
selections from miscellaneous writs preserved in the University's
archives. The University's own muniments, including such of the
writs relating to that institution as had already appeared in print,
were issued by the Maitland Club in 1854.

Besides the documents
comprehended in these publications there had been returned from
Paris two MS. volumes relating to the diocese, one consisting of the
Protocols of Cuthbert Simson, clerk of the Cathedral Chapter
(1499-1513), and the other the Rental Book kept by the archbishops
(1509-70). The publication of these manuscripts, under the title
Diocesan Registers, was undertaken by the Grampian Club in 1875.
Little was known either of the Protocols or the Rental Book before
their publication, but each has its peculiar value in providing
minute and interesting particulars regarding the city and barony
before the dates when the existing council records and town clerks'
protocols commence.

Beyond what had been
accomplished, about forty years previously, no progress was made in
the publication of municipal records till, in the year 1876, the
late Sir James Marwick, through the medium of the Scottish Burgh
Records Society, began the publication of the city's charters and
records. Latterly continued and completed to the year 1833, under
the authority of the Town Council, this series extends to fourteen
bulky volumes, and the valuable information thereby provided for the
local historian has been supplemented by eleven thin quartos,
embracing the protocols of the town clerks of Glasgow, so far as
preserved, between the years 1530 and 1600.

From time to time
portions of the large accumulation of historical material here
enumerated have been utilised in narrative form, notably by Sir
James Marwick in his Historical Introduction to the first volume of
Glasgow Charters and in his Early Glasgow, but it is generally
recognised that the time has come for the history of the city being
presented on a more comprehensive scale than has hitherto been
attempted.

After finishing, in
1916, the editorial work entrusted to me by the Town Council eight
years previously, it was not my intention to undertake anything
further in connection with the city's history beyond the issue of
(1) a few papers supplementary to Glasgow Memorials, and (2) a
revised and enlarged edition of Historical Glasgow, originally
compiled as part of a handbook on the occasion of the British
Association's visit to Glasgow in 1901. Unexpectedly, however,
suggestions came to me from various quarters which led to
reconsideration of that limited design. In the course of an
appreciative notice of the completed charters and records, which
appeared in the Scottish Historical Review, I was urged to undertake
the compilation of a history of the city. Approval of that step came
both from individuals and from some of the public journals, the
Council of the Glasgow Archaeological Society concurred, and Glasgow
Town Council formally invited me to proceed with the work. Perhaps
too easily persuaded to enter on so congenial a task, and not
sufficiently realising the difficulties which lie in the way, many
of which can only be partially overcome, I have ventured thus far,
and the first instalment of the new history of Glasgow is now
submitted to the public.

That the Town Council
should have extended to the present scheme the generous support
which they gave to the publication of their charters and records is
highly gratifying, alike to author and publishers ; and in this
connection grateful acknowledgment is due to Sir John Lindsay, Town
Clerk, for the interest manifested by him in the progress of the
work, and for his cordial co-operation in facilitating the needful
business arrangements.

Surviving all its
many hazards by land and sea, in this country and abroad, the
ancient register of the bishopric, known as Regis/rum Vetus
Ecclesia? Cathedralis Glasguensis, is now safely deposited in St.
Mary's College, Blairs, Aberdeenshire; and through the courtesy of
the Right Rev. James M'Gregor, Rector of the College, facilities
were readily afforded for photographing the four pages here
reproduced in facsimile. All the documents in the register are
printed in Registrum Episcopatus, but it is interesting to have a
specimen of the original manuscript, penned, it is thought, in the
twelfth century. The photographed pages begin with the last two
lines of Earl David's Inquisitio (the whole of the lithographed MS.
of which is given in the published Regis/rum), and also contain the
foundation charter of the burgh of Glasgow, the charter instituting
Glasgow Fair, and other documents specified in the List of
Illustrations.

As will be seen from
quotations and footnotes, I have freely availed myself of the
researches and opinions of other writers and to several personal
friends I am indebted for information and advice. Very specially
have I to express my obligations to Mr. George Neilson, LL.D., for
invaluable assistance. Not only was Dr. Neilson always ready to
confer with me on preliminary points, but he also, in renewal of
similar favours rendered on previous occasions, took the trouble to
read over all the proof sheets of the present volume and to give me
the benefit of his wise counsel and serviceable suggestions.,

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